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THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



honey. I buy one man's honey whose 

 product is worth at least two cents a 

 pound more than that of any other pro- 

 ducer's goods (one only excepted, whose 

 honey always sells at a fancy price. 

 sometimes nearly double the ruling- 

 figure) and at this advanced price it is 

 still the cheapest honey I buy, as every 

 sale calls for more, and every one that 

 buys becomes an agent of publicity.. 

 While I am reaping the benefit of this 

 publicity and public good will, it is the 

 producer who has made it possible, and 

 his work in the bee-yard is an active 

 agent in building up my trade. As a 

 prime factor in advancing the price of 

 comb honey, and extending its market, 

 put intelligence into the production of the 

 very finest article; do not be satisfied 

 with anything short of perfection, and 

 the sale and price will both be assured. 



WHEN HONEY CAN't BE LEFT ON ALL 

 THE SEASON. 



The average bee keeper is a poor pro- 

 ducer of extracted honey. The advice 

 often given to leave the honey all on the 

 hives until the close of the season, and 

 then extract, may be given and followed 

 with advantage where the flow is from a 

 single source, but where the crop is the 

 result of a series of flows of different 

 grades of honey, the advice is pernicious. 

 It requires less judgment and care to 

 produce a crop of honey in this way, but 

 it lessens the crop without lessening the 

 work, and the inferior grades of honey 

 practically reduce the whole crop to their 

 own value; thus, every year, I buy amber 

 honey at a reduced price, where the 

 honey should be sent to me in two 

 grades, at least— amber or dark, and 

 white. Only last fall I bought a lot of 

 honey wherein the man sent me a sample 

 of clover honey, asking for prices, and I 

 quoted him prices such as I paid for good 

 amber honey. He was disappointed; 

 said he had left the honey on the hives 

 all the season to ripen, and thought he 

 might receive my highest price. A light 

 flow of, buckwheat honey in the fall had 

 lessened the value of his clover honey 



more than the buckwheat honey in it 

 was worth. 



I am not criticizing the honey produced 

 by this method when there is only the 

 single source of surplus, for in that case 

 the honey, when rightly handled, is un- 

 excelled, and will command both the 

 price and the customers, which can not 

 be said of the product where the flow is 

 varied. The dealer, to build up a perma- 

 nent trade, should have each kind of 

 honey in its purity as nearly possible, 

 ripened but not mixed, and the producer 

 should co-operate with this requirement 

 as fully as may be in his power. This 

 will require more thought and skill in 

 production, as each bee keeper would 

 have to adapt his method to his locality. 

 He should learn to be a good judge of 

 honey, and keep in close touch with all 

 the varying conditions of the honey flow — 

 but these things do not come under the 

 head of this article; I have written what 

 I have along this line because a common 

 hindrance to many a dealer's success in 

 building up his trade is faulty production, 

 and the common lack of knowledge in 

 properly grading. I would emphasize the 

 fact that while the different kinds of 

 honey should be taken in their season 

 separately they must always be ripened. 



MAKING A QUICK SALE. 



"Did you ever stop to think that you 

 spend all of your season producing your 

 crop of honey, and then sell it in about 

 fifteen minutes?" 



This sentence tells only half a truth. 

 Throughout the entire season, while you 

 are producing your crop you are building 

 for that sale, and, as soon as your crop 

 is removed, you know that the kind of 

 sale possible for you to make is practi- 

 cally decided. The "western bee keeper," 

 mentioned in your editorial, did well in 

 devoting all his energies to the produc- 

 tion of an article worthy of the highest 

 price, and, being worth it, he could 

 readily sell it, and. having sold it, he was 

 left free to again devote all his energies 

 to the production of another crop that 

 would again command the highest price. 



